Surveys are a great way to collect feedback from customers, employees and other stakeholders. However, they can be tricky to get right if you’re not careful.
Poorly designed surveys can lead to inaccurate or unhelpful results that don’t give you the information you need. In this article, we look at some of the most common survey mistakes and how to avoid them.
From using leading questions and not giving enough context for respondents to make an informed decision, there are many potential pitfalls when it comes to creating effective surveys.
By understanding these errors and taking steps to address them in your survey design process, you can ensure your surveys yield valuable insights that help inform decisions within your organization.
What Exactly Is a Survey Error?
A survey error is any mistake made during the design, implementation or analysis of a survey that affects its results. While errors can occur at any point in the process, they are most likely to occur during the creation and execution stages.
Sometimes these survey errors can be minute like a misordering of questions that affects the outcome of the survey, but it can also be a fundamental flaw like a bias.
Survey errors can result in inaccurate data, incorrect conclusions and lack of actionable insight. Understanding the root cause of these errors can help you create surveys that are more effective, efficient and reliable.
1. Not Setting Clear Objectives
Not setting clear objectives for your survey is a mistake. That means you don’t know what kind of answers you want, so it’s hard to get useful information from the survey. Make sure you know what information you want to get from the survey, and design questions that will help you achieve those goals.
2. Writing Too long or Too Complex Questions
Questions should be short and to the point. Long, complicated questions can be confusing and difficult to answer, leading respondents to abandon the survey altogether. Keep your language simple and straightforward and make sure each question is relevant and focused on the topic at hand.
3. Asking Leading Questions
Leading questions are those that suggest a particular answer. This type of bias can influence the results of your survey, so it’s important to avoid them. Instead, ask open-ended questions that don’t imply any single response and allow respondents to share their own thoughts and ideas.
4. Failing to Proofread the Survey Before Sending It Out
Proofreading is an essential step in the survey creation process. Even a small typo or grammar mistake can cause confusion and make your survey look unprofessional. Don’t forget to review your survey for errors before releasing it!
5. Not Testing the Survey Beforehand
Testing your survey is key to making sure you get accurate data. Ask a few people to take the survey and see if there are any technical or other issues that need addressing before you send it out.
6. Making Assumptions About Respondents’ Knowledge and Preferences
Before writing your questions, consider what information respondents may not know or be familiar with. This will help ensure your questions are clear and don’t make any assumptions about people’s prior knowledge.
7. Not Offering Incentives for Completing Surveys
Offering incentives like gift cards, discounts or entries into prize drawings can motivate more people to complete your survey. This is especially important if you are targeting members of the public who have no vested interest in the outcome of the survey.
8. Forgetting to Include an Other Option
Including an “other” option in your multiple-choice questions allows respondents to provide an answer that isn’t listed on the survey. This can be invaluable if you want to get a complete picture of people’s preferences and experiences.
9. Overlooking Data Security Measures When Collecting Responses Online
If you are collecting survey responses online, make sure you have adequate data security measures in place. This includes using secure forms, encrypting any sensitive information and deleting collected data after it is no longer required.
10. Not Adjusting the Survey for Mobile Device Users
Many people now use their smartphones or tablets to take surveys, so it’s important to make sure your survey is optimized for mobile devices. This means using a responsive design, keeping questions short and reducing the number of images or videos used in your survey.
11. Not Providing Respondents with an Easy Way to Contact
If respondents have any questions or feedback about your survey, make sure you provide them with an easy way to get in touch – this could be through a contact form on your website, social media channels or email address. That way, they can quickly get the help they need so that their responses are more accurate.
12. Not Collecting Enough Data
It’s important to collect a sufficient amount of survey responses in order to get reliable and accurate results. Consider the size of your target audience and how many responses you need in order to draw meaningful conclusions from your survey data.
13. Being Too Vague with Questions
Questions should be precise and worded in such a way that respondents know exactly what is being asked of them. Ambiguity can lead to misunderstandings and inaccurate answers, so make sure each question is as clear as possible.
14. Not Allowing for Open-ended Comments
Open-ended questions give respondents an opportunity to provide additional information or explain their answers in more detail. This can provide valuable insights into people’s experiences and preferences that would otherwise be missed.
15. Failing to Analyze the Data
Analyzing your survey results is essential for turning raw data into actionable insights. After collecting the data, use tools like statistical analysis or machine learning algorithms to uncover trends and patterns that can help you make informed decisions.
16. Not Sharing the Results
Once you have analyzed your survey data, it’s important to share the results with stakeholders and other relevant parties. This can help ensure any decisions made are based on accurate and up-to-date information. And it also shows respondents their feedback is valued and taken seriously.
17. Neglecting to Thank Respondents
Make sure to thank respondents for taking the time to complete your survey. Whether it’s within an automated follow-up email or on social media, expressing your gratitude will show them their input is appreciated and can encourage future participation in surveys.
18. Not Following Up on Survey Results
Once you have analyzed your survey data and shared the results with stakeholders, consider how you can use this information to make improvements. This could include changing processes or introducing new initiatives that are based on the feedback you received. Follow-up is key to making sure your survey efforts result in tangible outcomes.
19. Not Using a Survey Tool
Using a survey tool can save you time and effort when creating, distributing and analyzing your surveys. Many tools offer features like question logic, real-time reporting and automated follow-ups that can help make the process of gathering feedback easier and more efficient.
20. Not Regularly Updating Surveys
Regularly reviewing and updating your surveys can help ensure they remain relevant to the people taking them. Consider whether it’s necessary to add or remove questions, adjust wording or change the format of your survey based on the feedback you’ve received. This will help make sure it stays up-to-date with the needs of your target audience.
21. Not Using Visuals or Multimedia
Adding visuals to your survey can help make it more engaging and easier to understand, which may encourage people to participate and provide honest feedback. Consider including images, videos or audio clips that are relevant to the questions you’re asking, as this can help to clarify the context of each question and make it more engaging.
Additional Reading: Statistical Significance | How Many Survey Respondents Do I Need?
How to Create a Good Survey
With those common mistakes out of the way, how exactly do you create a good survey?
One option is to utilize a survey service like ProductLab that allows you to build a solid survey, avoiding many of the mistakes that surveyors make when piecing together a survey on their own.
ProductLab acts as a hand-holding technique to guide surveyors through the process from start to finish. Here are a few ways that the above mistakes can be used to create a good survey.
Carefully Consider the Goals and Objectives
It’s important to have a clear goal in mind when creating a survey. What kind of insights are you hoping to gain? Are you trying to understand customer satisfaction, or do you need feedback on how people use your product?
Once you know what information you want to collect, create questions that will help you get the answers you need. From there, you can choose the format of your survey should match the type of data that needs to be collected.
Multiple-choice questions are great for collecting quantitative data while open-ended comments allow respondents to share their opinions and experiences in more detail. Structured interviews or focus groups can also be used if more qualitative data is required.
Offering an incentive such as gift cards or discount codes can help encourage people to complete the survey and provide more thoughtful responses. This is especially helpful if you’re trying to get feedback from customers who are less likely to participate in surveys.
Write Clear Questions
Questions should be concise and use simple language that everyone can understand. However, with the objectives in mind, they should be slightly easier to craft.
Make sure to avoid jargon or overly technical terms, as this can lead to misunderstandings or inaccurate responses. Leave enough room for respondents to give detailed answers if necessary.
When crafting the questions, it can be a good time to also consider security for answers. Make sure to avoid leading questions are those that imply a certain answer or have a predetermined set of options.
These types of questions can often bias respondents and skew the results in ways that don’t accurately reflect their opinion.
Instead, create neutral questions that offer multiple options for responses and don’t suggest which option should be chosen. Make sure to ask questions in a way that doesn’t pressure the respondent into giving a specific answer.
Additional Reading: How To Create a Good Survey Question (& Other Survey Tips)
Test Your Survey
It’s important to proofread your survey one last time before launching it. Check for any typos, grammar errors or other mistakes that could lead to confusion or incorrect data.
Additionally, make sure that the questions flow logically and accurately reflect your objectives. Before launching your survey, make sure to test the survey before sending it out to a larger group of people.
This allows you to identify any typos or confusing questions that could lead to incorrect data being collected. It also gives you an opportunity to make any necessary changes before the survey is launched.
Analyze and Act on the Results
After collecting all the data, analyze it using tools like statistical analysis and machine learning algorithms so that you can uncover trends and patterns in the responses.
Once you’ve analyzed the results of your survey, it’s time to put those findings into action. Depending on the type of survey, you may use the data to inform decisions about what products or services to focus on, how to improve customer satisfaction or create more effective marketing strategies.
It’s important to remember that the survey is only the first step in gaining useful insights, so take time to act on the information you have collected and use it to make positive changes.
Final Thoughts
Survey mistakes can lead to inaccurate results and skewed data, so it’s important to consider these potential pitfalls before sending out your survey.
By avoiding common errors such as writing complex questions or failing to provide incentives for completing surveys, you can ensure that your data is reliable and accurate.
It’s also helpful to test the survey beforehand and adjust it for mobile device users, and make sure you provide an easy way for respondents to contact you if they have any questions or feedback.
Finally, don’t forget to analyze the data after collecting it – this will help you uncover key trends and insights that can inform future decisions.